We’ve added another project to the lab – a standard finder! Ok, so most of you are wondering what in the world a standard finder is. Well have you ever wondered how computers determine that a person you’re looking for may be the same as another person? It goes through a match process. One of the key ways of determining whether two possible candidate persons match with each other is to evaluate the genealogical data known about the person. Of course it gets kind of tricky. How does the computer know that Polly Pay is a pretty good match to Mary Pay? How does it know how to compare dates on different calendaring systems or just interpret 24 Jul 1847 and 7/24/1847? How does it know that SLC, UT is the same place as Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA? The computer first takes these bits of data and finds their standard form. For example, it uses a standard finder to determine that Polly is a common nickname for Mary and matches them. In the world of genealogy, being able to determine a standard form of things like places, names, and dates is critical to being able to match things together.

The Standard Finder is what we are currently using as part of the new FamilySearch system. Try it out and see how different names, dates, and places standardize. Use the feedback link in the Standard Finder to tell us what you think.